NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury is a Southern Gothic novel written by American author William Faulkner, which makes use of the stream of consciousness narrative technique pioneered by European authors such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Published in 1929, it was his fourth novel. It first received commercial success in 1931 when Faulkner's novel Sanctuary, a sensationalist story which Faulkner later admitted was written only for money, drew widespread attention to the author. Critical praise soon followed. The book continues to sell well as of 2007, and it has become standard college curriculum around the United States. Image File history File links S&f87. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 â€“ July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Strawberry Hill, an English villa in the Gothic revival style, built by seminal Gothic writer Horace Walpole The gothic novel was a literary genre that belonged to Romanticism and began in the United Kingdom with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Southern Gothic is a subgenre of the Gothic writing style, unique to American literature. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 â€“ July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a literary technique which seeks to portray an individuals point of view by giving the written equivalent of the characters thought processes. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish SÃ©amus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 â€“ 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Virginia Woolf (nÃ©e Stephen) (January 25, 1882 â€“ March 28, 1941) was an English novelist and essay writer who is regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Sanctuary is considered one of the more controversial of William Faulkners novels, given its theme of rape. ...

Plot introduction

The novel takes place in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County and is split into four sections. The first is from the viewpoint of Benjy Compson, a thirty-three year old man with mental retardation. The second segment is from the point of view of Quentin Compson, the Harvard-educated student who commits suicide after a series of events involving his sister Caddy. The third is from the point of view of their cynical, embittered brother, Jason, and the fourth is from a third person limited narrative point-of-view focused on Dilsey, the Compson family's black servant, and her unbiased point of view, which allows the reader to make his or her own assumptions from the actions of the other characters. The story overall summarizes the lives of people in the Compson family that has by now fallen into ruin. Many passages are written in a stream of consciousness. Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional county created by American author William Faulkner as a setting for many of his novels. ... Quentin Compson is a fictional character created by William Faulkner. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Dilsey is the Compson familys black servant in William Faulkners The Sound and the Fury. ...

Explanation of the novel's title

The title of the novel is taken from Macbeth's soliloquy in act 5, scene 5 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth: Soliloquy is an audible oratory or conversation with oneself. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Macbeth and Banquo meeting the witches on the heath by ThÃ©odore ChassÃ©riau. ...

Most immediately obvious is the idea of a "tale told by an idiot," in this case Benjy, whose version of the Compsons' story opens the novel. More to the point, however, the novel is recounting the death of a family, including some of its members, as well as the decline of the traditional Southern rich family. This is the significance of "The way to dusty death." The last line is, perhaps, the most meaningful; Faulkner later says in his speech upon being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature that people must write about things that come from the heart, or "universal truths". Otherwise, he states, the ideas published signify nothing. Nobel Prize in Literature medal. ...

Plot summary

The four parts of the novel relate many of the same episodes, each from a different point of view and therefore with emphasis on different themes and events. This interweaving and nonlinear structure makes any true synopsis of the novel difficult, especially since the narrators are all unreliable in their own way, making their accounts not necessarily trustworthy at all times. Also in this novel, Faulkner uses italics to indicate points in each section where the narrative is moving into a significant moment in the past. The use of these italics can be confusing, however, as time shifts are not always marked by the use of italics, and periods of different time in each section do not necessarily stay in italics for the duration of the flashback. Thus, these time shifts can often be jarring and confusing, calling for the necessity of a particularly close reading.

The general outline of the story is the decline of the Compson family, a once noble Southern family descended from U.S. Civil War hero General Compson. The family falls victim to those vices which Faulkner believed were responsible for the problems in the reconstructed South: racism, avarice, selfishness, the lack of psychological ability of individuals to become determinants. Over the course of the thirty years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.

The reader may also wish to look in The Portable Faulkner for a four-page history of the Compson family. Faulkner said afterwards that he wished he had written the history at the same time he wrote The Sound and the Fury.

Part 1: April 7, 1928

The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjamin "Benjy" Compson, the youngest of the Compson boys and a source of shame to the family because of his mental retardation and/or autism (never explicitly stated to be either one, but exhibits symptoms of both); the only characters who seem to show any genuine caring for him are his sister Caddy, and Dilsey, a matriarchal servant. His narrative voice is characterized predominantly by an inability to understand chronology or the laws of cause and effect. His section jumps freely between the years 1898 and 1928 with Faulkner's use of italics signifying a jump in time (he originally wanted to use different colored ink to signify different time periods, an idea quickly shot down by the publisher). This makes the style of this section particularly challenging, but Benjy's style develops a cadence that, while not linearly coherent, provides unbiased insight on many characters' true motivations; thus he may be compared to a camera, for he provides an objective view of all actions while giving no reaction. His section may be followed more easily by establishing a sense of time. Benjy's narration and age can be determined by which of Dilsey's children is watching over him - Luster in the present, T.P during Benjy's teenage years, and Versh during Benjy's infancy and childhood. Mental retardation is a term for a pattern of persistently slow learning of basic motor and language skills (milestones) during childhood, and a significantly below-normal global intellectual capacity as an adult. ... Autism is classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and American Psychological Association as a developmental disability that results from a disorder of the human central nervous system. ... For the novel by Michael Crichton, see Timeline (novel). ... Cause and Effect is considered by many fans to be one of the best episodes of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. ...

In this section we see Benjy's three passions: fire, a certain portion of meadow on the family's estate, and his sister Caddy. But by 1928 Caddy has been banished from the Compson home after her husband divorced her because her child was not his, and the family has sold his favorite pasture to a local golf club. In the opening scene, Benjy, accompanied by Luster, a servant boy, watches golfers through the fence blocking him from what used to be his favorite place. When one of them calls for his golf caddie, Benjy's mind embarks on a whirlwind course of memories of his sister, Caddy, focusing on one critical scene. In 1898 when their grandmother died, the four Compson children were forced to play outside during the funeral. In order to see what was going on inside, Caddy climbed a tree in the yard, and while looking inside, her brothers—Quentin, Jason and Benjy—looked up and noticed that her drawers were muddy. How each of them reacts to this is the first insight the reader has into the trends that will shape the lives of these boys: Jason is disgusted, Quentin is enthralled, and Benjy seems to have a "sixth-sense" in that he moans (he is unable to speak using words), as if sensing the symbolic nature of Caddy's dirtyness, which hints at her later sexual promiscuity. At the time the children were aged 7 (Quentin), 6 (Caddy), 4 (Jason) and 3 (Benjy). Other crucial memories in this section are Benjy's change of name (from Maury, after his uncle) in 1900 upon the discovery of his disability; the marriage and divorce of Caddy (1910), and Benjy's castration, resulting from his family's false belief that he might rape or attack young women. This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Readers often report trouble understanding this portion of the novel due to its impressionistic language--necessitated by Benjamin's retardation--and its frequent shifts in time and setting.

Part 2: June 2, 1910

Narrated by Quentin, the most intelligent and most tortured of the Compson children, the second part is probably the novel's finest example of Faulkner's narrative technique. In this section we see Quentin, a freshman at Harvard University, wander the streets of Cambridge, contemplating death and remembering his family's estrangement from his sister Caddy. Like the first section, the plot is not strictly linear, although the two interweaving storylines of Quentin at Harvard on the one hand and his memories on the other are clearly discernible. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning still operating in the United States. ... Geography Status City (1951) Region East of England Admin. ...

Quentin's main focus is on Caddy, whom he loved immeasurably, for which love he felt tremendously guilty. Quentin tells his father that they have committed incest, but his father knows that he is lying ("and he did you try to make her do it and I I was afraid to I was afraid she might and then it wouldn't do any good"(112)). Quentin's idea of incest is wrapped around the idea that if they "could just have done something so dreadful that they would have fled hell except us" (51) that he could protect his sister by joining her in whatever punishment/hardship/retribution she would be forced to endure. In his mind, he would not feel guilty about Caddy's fate if only he had been able to share it with her. Shortly before Quentin left for Harvard in the fall of 1909, Caddy became pregnant with the child of Dalton Ames who is confronted by Quentin. The two fight, with Quentin losing horribly and Caddy vowing to never speak to Dalton again for Quentin's sake. Pregnant and alone, Caddy then marries Herbert Head, whom Quentin finds repulsive but Caddy is resolute: she must marry before the birth of her child. Herbert however finds out that the child is not his and sends mother and daughter away in shame. Quentin's wanderings through Harvard, as he cuts class, follow the pattern of his heartbreak over losing Caddy. For instance, he meets a small Italian immigrant girl who speaks no English. He significantly calls her "sister" and spends much of the day trying to communicate with her, to no avail. Ultimately, Quentin kills himself by jumping off a bridge into the Charles River after loading his jacket with flat-irons. A plaque on the bridge commemorates Quentin's life and death. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... A pregnant woman Pregnancy is the process by which a mammalian female carries a live offspring from conception until it develops to the point where the offspring is capable of living outside the womb. ... It has been suggested that Suicide method be merged into this article or section. ... The Great Bridge over the Charles River connected Cambridge, Massachusetts to Little Cambridge, which was the name for Allston-Brighton before it separated from Cambridge in 1807, first becoming the town of Brighton and finally joining the city of Boston in 1874. ... The Charles River from the Boston side, facing Cambridge and the main campus of Harvard University. ... Quentin Compson is a fictional character created by William Faulkner. ...

While many first-time readers report Benjy's section as being difficult to understand, these same readers often find Quentin's section to be near impossible. Not only do chronological events mesh together regularly, but often (especially at the end) Faulkner completely disregards any semblance of grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead writing in a rambling series of words, phrases, and sentences that have no separation to indicate where one thought ends and another begins. This confusion is due to Quentin's severe depression and deteriorating state of mind. The section is therefore ironic in that Quentin is an even more unreliable narrator than his brother Benjy was. Because of the staggering complexity of this section, it is often the one most extensively studied by scholars of the novel. Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or sometimes unipolar when compared with bipolar disorder, which is sometimes called manic depression) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily... Inmates at Bedlam Asylum, as portrayed by William Hogarth Insanity, or madness, is a general term for a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder. ... In literature and film, an unreliable narrator (a term coined by Wayne C. Booth in his 1961 book The Rhetoric of Fiction[1]) is a literary device in which the credibility of the narrator is seriously compromised. ...

Part 3: April 6, 1928

The third portion is narrated by Jason, the least likeable of the Compson children. Of the three brothers who narrate a section, his account is the most straightforward, reflecting Jason's single-minded and calculated desire for material wealth. By 1928, Jason is the economic foundation of the family after his father's death. He supports his mother, Benjy, and Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter) as well as the family of servants. This role has made him bitter and cynical, with little sign of the passionate sensitivity that defined his older brother or sister. He goes so far as to blackmail Caddy into making him Miss Quentin's sole guardian, then uses that role to steal the support payments that Caddy sends for her daughter.

This is the first portion that is narrated in a linear fashion. It follows the course of Good Friday--a day in which Jason decides to leave work to search for Miss Quentin (Caddy's daughter), who has run away again, seemingly in pursuit of mischief. Here we see most immediately the conflict between the two predominant traits of the Compson family (which Jason's mother Caroline attributes to the difference between her and her husband's blood): on the one hand, Miss Quentin's recklessness and passion, inherited from her mother and, ultimately, the Compson side; on the other, Jason's ruthless cynicism, drawn from his Mother's side. This section also gives us the clearest image of domestic life in the Compson household, which for Jason and the servants means the care of Caroline the hypochondriac and of Benjy. Hypochondria (sometimes hypochondriasis) is the unfounded belief that one is suffering from a serious illness. ...

Part 4: April 8, 1928

April 8, 1928, not coincidentally, was Easter Sunday. This section, the only without a single first person narrator, focuses on Dilsey, the powerful matriarch of the black servant family. She, in contrast to the declining Compsons, draws a tremendous amount of strength from herself and her faith, and thus stands as a proud figure amidst a dying family. It can be said that Dilsey gains her strength by looking outward (i.e. outside of one's self for support) while the Compsons grow weak by looking inward, thus imploding in on themselves. Easter (also called Pascha) is generally accounted the most important holiday of the Christian year, observed March or April each year to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead (after his death by crucifixion; see Good Friday), which Christians believe happened at about this time of year, almost two... First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one or more of the characters, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, I. The narrator is thus directly or indirectly involved in the story being told. ...

On Easter, she takes her family and Benjy to the 'colored' church for the Easter service. Through her we see, in a sense, the consequences of the decadence and depravity in which the Compsons have lived for decades. Dilsey is mistreated and abused, but nevertheless remains loyal. She is the only one who cares for Benjy, as she takes him to church and tries to bring him salvation. The preacher's sermon inspires her to weep for the Compson family, reminding her that she's seen the family through its destruction, which she is now witnessing.

Meantime, the tension between Jason and Miss Quentin reaches its inevitable conclusion: the family discovers that Quentin has run away in the middle of the night with a carnival worker, in the process breaking into Jason's desk and taking both her money (the support from Caddy, which Jason had stolen) and her money-obsessed uncle's life savings. Jason calls the police but cannot tell them that his money has been stolen, since it means admitting embezzling Quentin's money; he therefore sets off to once again find her on his own, but loses her trail in nearby Mottstown and gives her up as gone for good.

The novel ends with a very powerful and unsettling image. On the way back from church, Dilsey allows her son Luster to drive Benjy in the family's decrepit horse and carriage (another sign of decay) to the graveyard. Luster, not caring that Benjy is so entrenched in the routine of his life that even the slightest change in route will enrage him, drives the wrong way around a monument. Benjy's hysterical sobbing and violent outburst can only be quieted by Jason, of all people, who understands how best to placate his brother. Jason slaps Luster, turns the carriage around, and Benjy suddenly becomes silent. Luster turns around to look at Benjy and sees Benjy drop his flower. Benjy's eyes are "...empty and blue and serene again."

Characters in "The Sound and the Fury"

Jacob Thompson (May 15, 1810–March 24, 1885) was a U.S. politician. ... Absalom, Absalom! is a Southern Gothic novel by William Faulkner, published in 1936. ...

Literary significance & criticism

The novel has achieved a great deal of critical success and has secured a prominent place among the greatest of American novels, often considered as one of the 100 greatest books of all time. Recently, it was selected by the Modern Library as the sixth greatest English-language novel of the twentieth century. It also played a role in William Faulkner's receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize for literature. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole, not to any individual work, though individual works are sometimes...

The novel's appreciation has in large part been due to the technique of its construction: Faulkner's uncanny ability to recreate the thought patterns of the human mind, even the disabled one. In this sense, it was an essential development in the stream-of-consciousness narrative technique.

The Sound and the Fury has also, like much of Faulkner's work, been read as a microcosm for the South as a whole. Faulkner was very much preoccupied with the question of how the ideals of the old South could be maintained or preserved in the post-Civil War era. Seen in this light, the decline of the Compson family might be interpreted as an examination of the corrosion of traditional morality only to be replaced by a modern helplessness. The most compelling characters are also the most tragic, as Caddy and Quentin both cannot survive within the context of the traditional society whose values they reject as best they can, and it is left to Jason, unappealing but competently pragmatic, to maintain the status quo, as evidenced by the novel's ending.

There are also echoes of existential themes in the novel, as Sartre argued in his famous essay on Faulkner. Many of the characters also draw upon classical, Biblical and literary sources: Some believe Quentin (like Darl from As I Lay Dying) to have been inspired by Hamlet and Caddy by Ophelia; and Benjamin received his name after the brother of Joseph in the book of Genesis... Existentialism is a philosophical movement in which individual human beings are understood as having full responsibility for creating the meanings of their own lives. ... Jean Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Sartre (June 21, 1905–April 15, 1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, dramatist, novelist and critic. ... As I Lay Dying is an American novel written by William Faulkner. ... Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, one of his best-known works and the most-quoted play in the English language. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Genesis (Hebrew: â€Ž, Greek: Î“ÎÎ½ÎµÏƒÎ¹Ï‚, meaning birth, creation, cause, beginning, source or origin) is the first book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. ...

Major themes

Some items in the narrative may point to an interpretation wherein Benjamin is a Christ-figure. The following points suggest this symbolism:

Faulkner’s treatment and representation of time in this novel was hailed as revolutionary. Faulkner suggests that time is not a constant or objectively understandable entity, and that humans can interact with it in a variety of ways. Benjy has no concept of time and cannot distinguish between past and present. His disability enables him to draw connections between the past and present that others might not see, and it allows him to escape the other Compsons’ obsessions with the past greatness of their name. Quentin, in contrast, is trapped by time, unable and unwilling to move beyond his memories of the past. He attempts to escape time’s grasp and memories of his father's philosophy on life by breaking the glass of his inherited watch. Its ticking continues to haunt him afterward, even when no hands are on the face to show the time. Torn by his father's cynical philosophy that nothing really means anything, that words like virginity and time and eternity are all simply empty words created by man, Quentin strives his entire life to prove his father wrong. After failing to do so, he feels a sense of failure, and this, combined with his obsession of time, eventually leads to his suicide. Unlike his brother Quentin, Jason has no use for the past. He focuses completely on the present and the immediate future. To Jason, time exists only for personal gain and cannot be wasted. Dilsey is perhaps the only character at peace with time. Unlike the Compsons, who try to escape time or manipulate it to their advantage, Dilsey understands that her life is a small sliver in the boundless range of time and history.

Another visible theme is that of the elements. Each narrative character can be interpereted as a separate element through word choice, style, repetitive motifs, etc.

Movie Adaptions

Bibliography

James Weldon Johnson, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 â€“ June 26, 1938) was a leading American author, poet, early civil rights activist, and prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. ... The cover to the 1927 edition of Gods Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse by James Weldon Johnson, with artwork by Aaron Douglas Gods Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse is a 1927 book of poems by James Weldon Johnson patterned after African-American folk sermons. ...

Sources

Categories: 1929 novels | American novels | Novels by William Faulkner | Modernist texts William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 â€“ July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... Soldiers Pay is the first novel written by William Faulkner. ... Mosquitoes is a novel by William Faulkner published in 1927. ... Sartoris is a novel, first published in 1929, by William Faulkner. ... As I Lay Dying is an American novel written by William Faulkner. ... Sanctuary is considered one of the more controversial of William Faulkners novels, given its theme of rape. ... Light In August is a 1932 novel by William Faulkner. ... Pylon, published in 1935, is one of the few William Faulkner novels set outside Yoknapatawpha County, his favorite fictional setting. ... Absalom, Absalom! is a Southern Gothic novel by William Faulkner, published in 1936. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wild Palms/Old Man is a blend of two stories. ... Go Down, Moses is an episodic novel, by William Faulkner, consisting of seven short stories. ... Intruder in the Dust is a 1948 novel by William Faulkner. ... Requiem for a Nun is a book written by William Faulkner in 1951. ... A Fable was written in 1954 by William Faulkner and won him the Pulitzer prize. ... For the band, see The Reivers (band). ... Flags in the Dust is a novel written by William Faulkner, completed in 1927. ... From the Inside Flap The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkners Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the antebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstruction. ... The Town is a novel written by Conrad Richter in 1950. ... The Mansion is a novel written by William Faulkner in 1959. ... Sartoris is a novel, first published in 1929, by William Faulkner. ... Flags in the Dust is a novel written by William Faulkner, completed in 1927. ... Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional county created by American author William Faulkner as a setting for many of his novels. ... As I Lay Dying is an American novel written by William Faulkner. ...